Katsucon 2017 Con Report

Katsucon - February 17-19, 2017

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD

Another year at Katsucon has come and gone, and I had every intention of writing this report sooner than later, but life happens, and once the con ended, it was back to a hectic real life.

Although, Friday of the con was chilly, Saturday and Sunday turned out beautiful and warm.

Many attendees went outside and it alleviated the crowds inside the hotel and convention center. As we know from prior years, the gazebo and the locations within the atrium do get a bit crowded with various group photoshoots, cosplayers, and photographers getting pictures. The warm weather drew many of the attendees outdoors allowing some breathing room in the hotel and convention center. In fact, it was so nice out on Sunday of the con, and so many locals came into National Harbor, that most waits at the area restaurants were up to two hours. So there were a lot of interesting looks from the "normies" with all the cosplayers running around.

This weekend, it was a pleasure to actually help out Pachinko in the video game room. I learned how to play, mostly, and taught others the basics. For those who don't know, Pachinko is a game that originated in Japan. It is like a cross between pinball and a slot machine. It stands up vertically and you shoot small metal balls into the field that is full of pins, and the balls make their way down and hopefully into the few winning holes. The idea is to get the balls to land in these holes (cups) and the payout is more balls. Over the entire Katsucon weekend, we tallied payouts of players and the biggest winner of the weekend also gets two passes to Katsucon for next year. All proceeds from playing went to charity, The American Cancer Society. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to be able to help out again next year!

Cosplay is the thing at Katsucon. Con staff actually enforce photoshoots at the popular spots and make sure that they maintain their designated time slots. So it was all very organized. I had a chance to attend the Friday Disney photoshoot, as Princess Vanellope, and met many other wonderful Disney cosplayers. The series that ruled this year seems to be Overwatch. It was everywhere! So many D.Va's. Their shoot was HUGE! Another large showing was Marvel characters. Yuri on Ice had a pretty good showing, and characters from idol series, and a scattering of all different animes, cartoon, tv series, and movies.

The Masquerade was again a wonderful spectacle. The Best in Show skit tugged on the heartstrings. There were a lot of good performances and thankfully only a few dancing skits. Not that I mind the occasional dance skit, but lately Masquerades have become a big dance-off. I welcome back actual skits instead of all the dancing.

Again, this year, a lot of posts were making the rounds on Facebook about the destruction of property during Katsucon. The issue this year tended to be people hitting the above the door exit signs and knocking them down. There was also a lot of litter. On Sunday, it was quite disappointing to see that the waterfront was had piles of water bottles and other trash scattered about. I just want to remind people to respect the property of these hotels. Use the nearby trash and recycling receptacles and call people out who are vandalizing the property. Even though it is just a few individuals, it reflects poorly on all attendees.

Unfortunately, I did not drag my camera around with me this year, so I have no gallery to share. Just a few cell phone pictures that I took while I was free. Maybe next year.